The least sinful thought makes man liable to eternal damnation.
The least sinful thought makes man liable to eternal damnation.
Evan. Well, even if you have only one of them in you, I ask you to consider that hereby you transgress one of the Ten Commandments; and the apostle James says, that “Whoever would keep the whole law, and yet offends in one point, is guilty of all,” James 2.10. And call to mind, I also ask you, that a curse is denounced against all those who do not continue in “all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” Mind, I ask you, “that it does not continue in all things:” so that although you could do all that the law requires for a time, and avoid all that it forbids, and do that ever so exactly, yet if you do not continue doing it, but transgress the law only once in all your life, and only in one thought, you have thereby become subject to the curse, which, as you have heard, is eternal damnation in hell.
No, let me say more: even if you had never yet transgressed the law in your whole life up to now, not so much as the least thought, nor would ever do so while you live, yet you would thereby come far short of perfectly fulfilling the law; and so consequently you would come short of your justification and acceptance in the sight of God.
Nom. That is very strange to me, sir, for what more can be required, or what more can be done, than yielding perfect and perpetual obedience?
Evan. That is true indeed; there is no more required, nor can more be done; yet you must understand that the law requires passive obedience as well as active, suffering as well as doing; for our common bond entered into for us all, by God’s benefits towards the first man, has been forfeited by his disobedience, both in respect to himself and to all mankind. Therefore, ever since the fall of man, the law and the justice of God not only require the payment of the debt, but also payment of the forfeiture. Not only is perfect doing required of him, but also perfect suffering. “In the day that you eat of it, you shall die the death,” says the Lord, Gen. 2.17. No, let me tell you still more: in order for justice, the forfeiture should be paid before the debt; perfect suffering should go before perfect doing, because all mankind, by reason of that first and great transgression, are at odds and enmity with God. All of them are children of his wrath. And therefore God, saying this with holy reverence, cannot be reconciled to any man, before a full satisfaction is made to his justice by a perfect suffering, Col. 1.21. Perfect suffering, then, is required for reconciling man to God, Eph. 2.3, and setting him in the same condition he was in before his fall; and perfect doing is required for keeping him in that condition.
Nom. And, sir, is man as unable to pay the forfeiture as he is to pay the debt? I mean, is he as unable to suffer perfectly, as he is unable to do perfectly?
Evan. Yes indeed, every bit as unable. For man’s sin in eating the forbidden fruit was committed against God; and God is infinite and eternal; and the offence is always multiplied according to the dignity of the person against whom it is committed. Thus man’s offence must be an infinite offence, and the punishment must be proportionate to the fault. Therefore an infinite and eternal punishment is required at man’s hands, or else a temporal punishment that is equal and corresponds to the eternal. Now, man cannot sustain eternal punishment, because then he would never be delivered — he would be forever satisfying, and never have satisfied. This satisfaction is like the punishment of the devils and damned men in hell, which shall never have an end. And a temporal punishment cannot be equivalent to eternal either, because the power and vigour of no creature is such that it may sustain a finite and temporal punishment, equivalent to an infinite and eternal one. For the creature would be wasted, consumed, and brought to nothing sooner than it could satisfy the justice of God by this means. Therefore we may certainly conclude that no man can satisfy the law and justice of God, either by active or by passive obedience; and consequently, no man will be justified and accepted in the sight of God by his own doings or sufferings.
Nom. Sir, I see it clearly, and I am fully convinced of it, and I hope I will make use of it. But sir, is there no other use to be made of the law than this?
Evan. Yes indeed, neighbour Nomologista. You must not only labour by this to see your own insufficiency to procure your own justification and acceptance in the sight of God — even though that is the chief use that any unjustified person ought to endeavour to make of it — but you must also endeavour to make it a rule of direction for you, in your life and conduct.
Nom. But sir, if I cannot by my obedience to the law, do anything towards procuring my own justification and acceptance in the sight of God, or which I conceive is the same thing, if I can do nothing towards procuring my own eternal salvation, then I think anything I do would be in vain, for I cannot see any good that I will get by it.